What Lurks In The Dark
by Adoradork
Summary: New York is a long way behind them now. As the crew of the spaceship Honour's Blade, Leonardo and his brothers transport weaponry and supplies through Kraang blockaded star systems, to aid the rebellion against the Kraang. It's a dangerous job, but at least they are all together, right? (Cover art by the lovely NeapolitanKitty!)
1. Chapter 1

The _Honour's Blade_ shuddered as a plasma blast slammed into the hull. Leonardo guided the ship into a vertical pitch to dodge the hail of torpedoes coming their way. His fingers tingled as adrenaline rushed through his body. How had this happened? This system was supposed to be neutral. There should not have been a Kraang squadron waiting for them. One more jump, one more short jump and they would have been back at the rebel base.

The cramped, tiny bridge seemed to close in around him. He struggled to keep his breathing steady as he pulled the ship out of her dive to avoid a burst of plasma fire. The internal commlink on his headset crackled. "Do you think you could throw us around a bit more?" Raphael shouted. "Because it's not hard enough to hit them already!"

"Barrel roll! Barrel roll!" Mikey whooped, his exuberant shout slightly muffled by the comms.

The juddering boom of the side-mounted ion cannon drowned out Raphael's reply. One of the blips on Leonardo's screen became a haze. No time to stop and admire Mikey's marksmanship. Leo banked the ship into a ventral dive, turning the broad side to their enemy, the side with the heaviest armour and also Raphael with the other ion cannon. Another thunderous rumble echoed through the hull, but the five blips on his screen didn't change.

"You forgot the time delay, Raph! You got to-"

"Shut the fuck up, Mikey!"

Leo wished both his brothers would shut up so he could focus. Two of the remaining five Kraang ships were moving to flank them. He swallowed, his mouth dry. "Donnie, how's that jump going?" To his left, Donnie tapped frantically at his console, keying in the calculations for a hyperspace jump that would, hopefully, take them out of the reach of the Kraang.

"I'm working on it." Donnie snapped. His fingers flew across the keypad as he scrambled to enter the coordinates for the jump.

Leo flung the _Honour's Blade_ into a low-radius turn, tight as she would go, hoping to get out of the Kraang trap before it closed around them. Too late. He saw the bright heat signature incoming on his screen and pulled out of the turn, but out here with no gravity well to push against it was slow, too slow. "Brace!" he shouted into his headset.

The _Honour's Blade_ shuddered as the barrage hit, lights flickering, klaxons screaming a warning. "Donnie, can you kill those?"

"Sure, Leo. They're not important," Donnie said, his face tense.

Leo ignored his sarcastic tone. "Any imminent failures?"

"Only the reactor." Donnie flung up his hands. "Way to go, Leo. Turn the ship so the area with the engine takes the hit."

Leo gritted his teeth. "It was that or the ventral hull, and last time I looked we needed air."

"Well we fucking need the engine too, you dumbass." Donatello leaped out of his chair and bolted for the hatch.

"Donnie, wait! What about the jump calculations?" Leo's heart hammered in his chest. "We need to get out of here."

"It only needs the acceleration value." Donnie hauled the hatch open and disappeared up the ladder.

"Don't go, Donnie, I need you to-"

Donnie's voice came over the headset. "Work it out, Leo."

Leo wanted to shout at him to get back and finish the jump calculations, but Donnie had stopped listening to him months ago and he knew it would be a fruitless exercise. He rubbed the sweat off his face and glanced at Donnie's console. He could do the calculations, but not while he was also trying to avoid being vapourised. "Raph, I need you in here!"

There didn't seem to be enough air on the bridge. He forced himself to breathe slowly and focused on his screen. Another blast rocked the ship. They were surrounded, but there was a small hole in the Kraang's formation where the ship Mikey had destroyed would have been. That would have to do. He threw the ship into a steep dive, cutting through the z-plane. "Mikey! I'm giving you a target!"

Leo felt himself lifting off the seat, held down only by his harness. "Gravity system offline," flashed on to his screen. Raphael crawled through the hatch, cursing as he floated. He pushed off the wall toward his chair.

"Donnie where's our gravity?" Leo said into his headset.

Donnie didn't answer. Raphael strapped himself into his seat.

"Keep on this heading," Leo said to Raphael. "Mikey's going to clear a path for us." He transferred helm control to Raph's console and pulled up the navigation screen. The _Honour's Blade _trembled as Mikey fired at the Kraang ship in front of them, but their armour absorbed the blast.

"We're not going to get through." said Raphael.

"Make us get through," Leo said, trying to estimate mass and propulsion and gravitational influence, nearly impossible when they were dodging fire. Jumps were meant to happen under controlled circumstances, not in the middle of a battle. But they needed to get out of here before the Kraang got lucky and punched a hole in their hull.

The ship lurched. The overhead lights went out.

"Donnie what are you doing?" said Leo. No answer. "Donnie?"

Donnie's voice snarled in his ear. "I need to divert power to the propulsion system or we won't be going anywhere."

Leo focused on the calculations. He had to trust his brothers to do what they needed to do. He entered the acceleration value, hoping desperately he was close enough. An alarm blared, a red warning flashing on his screen. Oxygen tanks offline. Leo's screen flickered off and back on.

"Are you kidding me, Donnie?" Raphael shouted over comms. "I have no helm control!"

On his screen, a mass of lights advanced on their ship. Kraang torpedoes. They were out of time. Leo took a deep breath and activated the hyperjump.


	2. Chapter 2

Reality crashed back in around them, accompanied by the deafening wail of the warning klaxon. In the red glare of emergency lights the cockpit looked smaller than ever. Leonardo floated in his seat, held down only by the harness. He ran his tongue over his teeth, wanting to spit out the taste of dust in his mouth. Psychosomatic, Donnie always said, with a dismissive gesture. But every jump made Leo feel like he had swallowed a lungful of ash. Raphael was still strapped in, shaking his head, dealing with his own post-jump issues.

Leonardo shut off the klaxon. A message in glaring red obscured his screen. _Oxygen scrubbers offline. Reserve tanks at 89%._ Eighty-nine percent meant they had a leak somewhere. It meant limited time to repair and get themselves to the nearest rebel-friendly base. Leo spoke into his headset. "Mikey? Don? Acknowledge."

"Blargh," said Mikey over comms. "I think I'm gonna hurl." Standard issue Mikey response post-jump, so Leo ignored it.

"Don? Donnie. Acknowledge." The seconds stretched out, bringing with them a flicker of fear in his gut. He tapped at his screen, checking to see if the engine room was intact. It was. But still no answer from Donnie.

"I'll go down." Raphael unclipped his harness and pushed himself toward the door.

Leonardo nodded. He remembered a blast rocking them before the jump. A quick scan of the hull showed impacts everywhere. They must have run into a torpedo swarm. But what happened to the shields? Offline, said the readout. A large, red area covered the hull at the rear of the ship.

"Donnie, respond," he said again, a fruitless exercise if Don was injured, or-

"I'm here, dammit. Stop calling me, I'm trying to stabilise the reactor."

Leo breathed out in a rush which turned into a hiss as he gritted his teeth. Donnie was fine, he just hadn't thought it worth the effort to let his brothers know. Fine, Donnie. Be angry with me. But you still have two other brothers. He pushed the thought away. "Did you hear that, Raph?"

"I heard. Coming back."

Raph pulled himself through the hatch, Mikey right behind him, and they settled into their seats. Leo rubbed his arms. He went through the readouts on his screen. Oxygen scrubbers offline. Heat generators offline. He hadn't been imagining the chill in the room, then. Gravity offline. Internal power offline. The only things still working, as far as he could see, were systems and the engine.

He mentally braced himself and spoke into his headset. "Don, I need a status report. Life support is offline, I need to know how long-"

"When I'm done, that's how long. I need all the power we have left. Now leave me alone."

"Well, someone's bitchy today," Michelangelo said into the silence.

No one smiled. Leo kept his eyes on his screen, his expression neutral. He'd been trying so hard to keep their interactions civil, to not trigger arguments in the cramped conditions aboard ship where none of them could get any real privacy. In the last few weeks he and Donnie had settled into politely ignoring each other, which was almost worse than the fights. He rubbed at his face. The cracks were beginning to show.

Leonardo pushed down the sour taste in the back of his throat. He needed to focus on their situation. Maybe they could send a distress signal. "Mikey, can you open comms and see if there is anyone close enough to pick us up?"

"Sure!" Mikey fiddled with his console while Leo searched for some power he could divert to life support. Donnie might prioritise the propulsion system, but mobility was no good if they didn't have enough air to get home. He should order Donnie to divert some power to life support. But ordering Donnie to do anything lately was an exercise in futility.

"So," said Mikey. "Where exactly are we?"

Leo looked up. "We should have come out near the Kitalpha system."

Mikey spun his chair around to face Leo. "Well if we did, it's awfully quiet out there."

Leo pulled up the navigation screen, and stared at the unfamiliar star field. "What the-" He keyed in the location finder.

_Location unknown_.

No. He extended the search out to a nearby star, shifting their field of view.

_Location unknown_.

A prickle of worry ran up his neck. He set the nav comp up to search in their visible radius, looking for a familiar star.

"Well?" said Mikey.

Leo bit his lip. They couldn't be lost. They were just outside normal range, that was all. He realised Mikey and Raphael had swung around to face him. "I'm running a location search."

"Which means we're lost," said Raphael, folding his arms. "Did something go wrong with the jump?"

"It must have." Leo went back through the moments before the jump. Rolling to avoid the torpedoes. Donnie running out. Calculating the acceleration value. He pulled up the calculations and went over them. He couldn't see anything obviously wrong. And then the impact, just before the jump. Had it damaged the jump computer?

"I need to talk to Donnie."

Raph grunted and turned away. "Yeah, have fun with that."

Leo unclipped his harness and pushed off to the door. He should stay here and talk to Donnie over comms. But things were tense enough. He'd rather have this conversation face to face, where maybe he could read Donnie's cues and avoid another vicious argument. "Helm is yours, Raphael."

"Yippee," said Raph. But he waved a hand to Leo as he exited the cockpit.


	3. Chapter 3

Leo pulled himself hand over hand down the corridor outside the cockpit. Zero-G made it easier to crawl around the ship, but it was a bitch for hand-to-hand fighting. With the ventilators offline, silence ruled the ship. He rubbed at his ears, distracted by an odd sensation, like they were full of cotton wool. Each tiny sound echoed back at him from the metal walls. He pressed his hand against the walls, reassured by the tiny vibration of the engine. The _Honour's Blade_ wasn't dead, and neither were they.

He opened the hatch into the hangar. Bright, white-yellow light flooded through, blinding him. He squinted until his vision cleared. Donnie's little light pets clung to the wall along one side of the hangar, pulsing in unison. Blasted pests, but they had a liking for gamma-radiation, and targeted any hull breaches, no matter how tiny. Leo grimaced at the mass of them crawling across the starboard wall.

Well, now he knew where the leaks were.

He pushed off and floated over the little skiff they used for planetary drops. Their space suits hung in a cupboard beside the skiff. If they couldn't get the life support back on soon, they might be wearing those, but even then, they had maybe four hours of breathable air. Not enough. More problems to add to the list.

He reached the other side of the hanger and slipped through the door into their tiny cargo bay. More light pets huddled on what would be the ceiling if the gravity was on. Leo ran his gaze over the row of crates strapped and netted to the walls, a whole lot of weaponry that would get them killed if the Kraang caught them. He snorted. They had avoided _that _problem, but now had a dozen more. A twinge at the back of his head warned of an imminent headache.

Focus, focus. What would Master Splinter say? _Concentrate on the problems you can solve. Do not waste time on what you cannot control._ Leo bit his lip. Was Donnie even a problem he could solve anymore? He needed to find the right words, the words that would make everything okay between them again.

He collided gently with the wall above the hatch into the engine room. Leo paused on the threshold. The engine room glowed super-nova bright, and he had to wait a moment for his eyes to adjust. The light pets scuttled across the walls, the floor, crawled in an amoeboid mass over the curve of the fusion reactor, which took up most of the room's starboard wall.

He pulled himself into the room, looking for Donatello. His gaze fell on a hatch, tethered to the floor by a magnetic strap to stop it floating around. Donatello's shoulders and head were buried in the hatch opening, his long legs floating free. Something went bang in the depths of the access port.

"Fuck," snapped Donnie. He shot out of the port upside down and pushed over to the console on the reactor. His gaze fell on Leonardo, his expression closing in. "What?" he snapped. He started typing without waiting for an answer.

Leo focussed on the cold rail under his fingers, rather than the cold ball in his gut. "I came down to see how repairs are going. Life support is still offline."

Donnie shrugged his shoulders. "I know that."

Leo waited for more, but Don kept typing, his lips pressed into a thin line. "We have limited oxygen reserves Don, we-"

"I know that too," he snapped.

"-need that system back online."

Donnie pushed off from the console back toward the hatch. "I don't have time to sit here and explain why the system is offline." He pulled himself into the port opening. The clink of metal filled the silence.

Leo pretended he wasn't talking to Donatello's legs. "I'm not asking for an explanation. I would just like some indication of _when_, because I need to know how much time we have before our reserves run out."

"Stop worrying," Donnie said, his voice muffled. "We've got enough reserves to get to the nearest base from here, once I get the reactor under control."

Leo sighed. "That would be great, except I have no idea where 'here' is." Leo's shoulders jerked, sending his body on a gentle upward trajectory. He pulled himself back to the rail. "Something went wrong with the jump. We're lost."

The rattle of tools stopped. "What do you mean lost?"

"I mean lost. The nav comp can't find a known star within local range."

Donnie's hand reached out of the port and felt around until it gripped a spanner, which disappeared into the port. "Well, extend the range."

"I have. But it's going to take time, and thus use up reserves, and therefore we are in very real danger of running out of air before we find somewhere we can jump to. I was hoping you might have some ideas to speed up the search."

Donnie shot out of the hole again, the momentum sending him up to the ceiling, disturbing a cluster of light pets. He pushed back down to the deck. "You only had the acceleration calcs to do, Leo. How could you fuck those up?"

Leo bit down on his cheek, swallowed his anger, crushed the desire to snap back, knowing that Mikey and Raph would be hearing all of this, as they had heard all the other fights over the last few months. "I don't know if I did. There was an impact just before we jumped-"

"Great plan, Leo. Jump us into an ambush, let the engines take a direct hit and then get us lost. You're really maintaining your reputation for bad decisions here." Donatello turned his back on Leonardo.

Leo's gut spasmed as if he had been punched. He sucked in a ragged breath. Getting into another fight with Donatello wouldn't help. It didn't matter that Donnie's words weren't fair. They cut just as deep.

He should fight back. He should find the right words, and get Donnie on his side. His shoulders ached, his arms hung down, too heavy to lift. What was the point? He couldn't change the past. He let go of the rail, kicking off with his legs through the hatch. An aching hollow settled between his ribs.

Proximity alarms screamed. Leo turned and hauled himself back into the engine room to the nearest systems console. "What is it?" Leo shoved Donnie away from the console. "Raph, Mikey, do you have a visual?"

Raphael's voice crackled over the commlink. "I can't see a damn thing out there. There's no heat signature and no mass."

Leo's fingers flew over the panel as he called up the external visuals. Nothing. But the klaxons still blared their warnings.

"Wait, there's something on the radar," said Mikey. "Coming in fast!"

A thump reverberated through the hull. Leo grabbed for the panel as the force lifted him off the deck. A screwdriver floated past, set into motion by the impact against the hull. The visuals on the starboard side blacked out.

"What...was that?" said Raphael.

Leonardo stared at the video feed from the starboard side. Nothing but static. What had hit them? "I have no idea."

A warning light flashed on above the engine mass. Donatello hauled himself across to a control panel on the other side of the room. The engine shuddered and died.

_Emergency backup power _flashed across the screen. "Donnie, what-"

Donnie, upside down and tapping madly at a control panel near the reactor, threw up his hands. "Engine's shut down. Something has blocked the exhaust."

"What could have-" Shadows flickered around him. Donnie's light pets streamed away from the engine, over the ceiling, the walls, the floor, and out the door in a mass. "Where are they going?"

"Away from here, obviously." Donnie's fingers danced over the console, the light from the screen casting harsh shadows on his face. "Maybe you should, too."

Leo noted the _you_ rather than _we_ but didn't comment. "You focus on getting the engine back on line. I'll figure out what hit us."

"I planned to anyway," said Donnie, turning away.


	4. Chapter 4

_I planned to anyway_. Donnie's words played over and over in Leo's head. Challenging him. Dismissing him, with a single phrase. Leo hauled himself along the zero-G rails, hand over hand, back to the cockpit, forcing down the sour taste of fear. No use shouting at Donnie. No use trying to point out to Donnie that it wasn't Leo's fault. That was the problem.

It _was _his fault.

He recalled the battle so clearly, even now, months after. Nearly a year ago, in fact, but the aftermath still hung over them, the outcome of his decision a knife between them, cutting the bonds of brotherhood. A blunt knife, not slicing cleanly but tearing at already wounded flesh, severing them slowly, painfully, anger and resentment welling like black blood in the ragged wound.

_Focus_ he thought grimly. Focus. They were in the middle of unknown space, powerless, damaged and now something had hit them, something that killed the engine and sent Donnie's light pets running in fear. Fix that. Get the engine back online. Get home. Then, somehow, he had to find a way to mend this broken link in their family chain. Had to find a way to bring Donnie back to them, before it was too late.

He pulled himself through the cockpit door. "Anything?"

Raphael shook his head. "Nothing."

"I've got something," said Mikey.

Leo hauled himself over to Mikey's station and clung to his harness with one hand. The view on the screen showed one of the topside video feeds. "I can't see anything."

"Look." Mikey ran his finger along the screen. "See that?"

Leo's gaze followed Mikey's finger but he could see nothing. Then, like a composite picture coming into focus, he saw dark outline, beyond which the starfield was hazy and faded.

"Raph, are you reading anything?"

"Yeah. Something."

Leo pushed off and floated over behind Raph. "What is it?"

"Some sort of radiation? I don't know. Where's the brainiac?"

"Babying the reactor. It's not stable."

"Should we ask him?"

"No." Leo cut Raphael off harsher than he intended. "No. We have to deal with it."

"How?"

"We'll go outside and have a look."

Raphael shuddered. "Is that a good idea?" The question was reflex on Raphael's part, Leo knew. Funny, he thought. In their youth it would have been Raphael storming and questioning everything. But he and Raph grown into a relationship of mutual trust. They all had. He wondered suddenly how fragile that trust was. How easily it might break, under the right circumstances.

Focus. He breathed out slowly, a meditative breath. Raphael looked up sharply.

He forced himself to smile. "Do you have a better idea?" He clapped Raphael on the shoulder, gripped the harness to stop himself floating away from the rebounded kinetic energy. "Keep in contact. We're just going to get a visual. That's all"

Mikey unclipped his harness and followed Leo. In the hangar they suited up, into the bulky, custom-made spacesuits. The inside smelled of plastic and disinfectant, a stomach-churning mix. He went through the pre-walk checks. Pressure, seals, tank capacity, safety line, and finally comms. "Can you hear me, Raph?"

"Got you."

"Mikey?"

"Yeah boy!"

Raphael's snort carried through the headset, tinny and far away but just as derisive.

"Aw, you jealous, bro? Don't wanna come for a stroll?"

"Shut up, Mikey."

Leo beckoned to Mikey who followed him to the airlock. They cycled through, their suits expanding and becoming slightly more comfortable as the air pressure dropped. The green light went on and the outer door unlocked.

Leo opened the hatch and led the way because he was the leader, not because he particularly enjoyed space walks. He kept his eyes on the hull until he had clipped his safety line to the rail. He pulled himself out and moved, hand over hand, along the curve of the hull. Breathe in, breathe out. When he thought he had himself under control, he raised his gaze.

The dizzying expanse of the universe opened up above him and he braced against the wave of vertigo and nausea that he always felt on a space walk. They didn't do them often. Space walks were dangerous, and only for emergencies. Like this one. And he had never become used to the lack of direction, the vast, endless expanse of nothing that surrounded them. Terror hammered at the back of his skull, insistent, deafening. He pushed it down, swallowed against a mouth gone dry, turned his head slowly to check on Mikey.

Mikey had his safety line clipped and was closing the airlock hatch. He was, to Leo's orientation, upside down, and Leo's inner ear complained bitterly. Mikey pushed off confidently and floated over to Leo. Leo felt a moment of envy and resignation. Mikey, of course, had no trouble with space. Unlike Raphael who, on his first and only spacewalk, had frozen in terror, unresponsive, and had to be hauled back into the ship, shaking for hours later.

Mikey raised his fist in the signal for ready. Leo raised a fist in reply and then hauled himself hand over hand up the curve of the hull, keeping his eyes on the metal below him, rather than the open universe. They climbed slowly, with only the hiss of their suit ventilators to keep them company.

On the crest of the ship Leo paused and clipped his harness to the next rail.

"Dude," breathed Mikey into the suit mike. "What is that?" He hung upside down, pointing to the starboard side.

Leo followed the direction of his arm and saw what he meant. Out here, stark against the silvery hull, black coils worked their way along the ship, loop after loop. He blinked. He could see the light of the stars through them, as if they were opaque.

At first he thought the mass unmoving, but then he realised the coils were shifting slowly, like seaweed fronds in a gentle swell. He pulled himself hand over hand towards the rear of the ship. The coils were everywhere, but seemed to be just tubes. There was nothing holding them to the ship, and yet they stayed there, not drifting free.

Finally the massive bulk of the engine came into sight. Leo sucked in a breath. A black coil led straight into the long tube of the exhaust.

"Donnie." Donnie might be focused on the reactor, but he needed to see this. "Donnie." Silence. "Donnie, are you getting my visual?"

"No, actually, I'm fixing the engine."

"You need to see this."

An irritated growl down the commlink. "Sure, would you like me to fix your problem for you as well?"

"Just look, Donnie." Leo winced at the sharpness of his ow voice.

"If the reactor gets unstable while I'm-wow." Silence. "Huh. Is it-is it feeding on our exhaust?" There was an intense curiosity in Donnie's voice, something Leo hadn't heard in months. It hurt like blazes to hear it, to have this glimpse of a brother from better times. "It must be. It's some sort of space creature, attracted by the neutrinos in our exhaust. How long are those coils?"

"They're covering most of the starboard side. And they seem to be semi-transparent."

"Makes sense." Silence, and the tapping of keys. "Oh yeah, look at that. Hardly any centralised mass. Any space creature of that size must be able to exist in a vacuum, and it seems to be that the creature is doing that by de-stabilising its body somehow. Fascinating! If it's a neutrino feeder it must normally exist in solar gravity wells. Huh, or maybe supernovas? I wonder what levels it needs to sustain itself in deep space? Can they travel? I wonder if-"

Leo didn't want to interrupt, didn't want to lose this Donnie, this excited brother, babbling cheerfully about the space creature that was currently head first in their exhaust. Well, presumably head first. If it had a head. But they needed it away from the ship.

"And, huh, that would explain the noise."

"What noise?"

"Grinding, thumping noises from the exhaust. I think it's trying to crawl further up the pipes, after more neutrinos. It can probably sense them coming from the reactor."

That thing in the ship? No. That was bad. "How do we get rid of it? Can we turn off the reactor?"

"Not if we want to turn it on again."

"All right, how do we kill it?"

He knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as it was out of his mouth. Silence came down the line. "I don't know, Leo. That's your speciality."

Like a blunt blade. Straight into the centre of him. He was aware of Mikey turning his head toward him. Was aware of the uncomfortable silence over comms. But he had to ask. Had to get rid of this thing for the safety of the ship. "Can we damage it?"

A long, long silence. He was about to ask the question again when Donnie's voice came over comms. "Yeah. Use the laser saws. If it has any cohesion that will cut through it." Even through the tinny speakers Donnie's voice was cold, colder than space. "Excuse me, I have a reactor to maintain."

Leo swallowed, and again, not trusting himself to speak. When he had his breath under control he spoke. "Raph. Can you bring a couple of laser saws to the airlock?"

"Halfway there," said Raph's voice.

Mikey left to fetch the saws. Leo floated above the hull, one hand on the rail, watching the slow movement of the coils. How was this going to go down? Would the creature attack? He could see no armour or weapons in the diffuse body, but who knows what might happen when they cut through the flesh. And out here with nothing but the spacesuits they were vulnerable.

Mikey returned with the saws. "Double pronged attack?"

"No. You stay here in case something goes wrong."

Leo used the suit's power pack to maneuver himself down towards the exhaust. He floated over a mass of body, through which he could see the hull, shadowy and dim. How did it hold itself together? He was surprised Donnie hadn't asked for a sample to examine.

He grabbed hold of the rail and released his tether, winding it back so he could clip it to the rail here, closer to the exhaust. Then he hauled himself, hand over hand, toward the edge of the exhaust and the head of the thing inside.

He reached out a gloved hand, curious, hesitant. His fingers met the thing's flesh. There was a sensation of pressure, but nothing else through the thick gloves. The thing's body yielded to his hand, with hardly any resistance. He tensed, waiting for a reaction, but the thing seemed not to notice him.

Well, maybe he was just too small to be of interest to a massive low density interstellar whateveritwas. Leo turned and gave Mikey a fist up to show he was ready. He powered on the saw. A five-foot coruscating line of laser beams emerged from the end of the saw. Leo took a deep breath and lowered it toward the beast, tensing in anticipation of resistance.

The saw sheared through the body like it was tissue paper. He was more than halfway through the thick body before it thrashed. The saw jerked in his hands, slamming him against the hull. He scrabbled for a handhold, failed to get one, and found himself drifting off into space.

Vertigo overcame him as he spun, his vision blurring. He tried to keep himself from throwing up, twisting to see what was happening on the ship.

The coils thrashed. The body tore itself away and drifted into space. It was coming right for him. He grabbed his lifeline, braced against the impact. Would it be enough to tear him loose? _Don't panic, don't panic_. He was going to float into space. drifting, helpless. Was his air running out? How long before his suit shut down, before the cold seeped in? _Stop it, stop it. _He clung to the tether, the lifeline that held him to the ship. _You're not floating free. You're still attached. Calm down_.

The coils reached him, floated past, driven by the thing's thrashing reaction to his cut. But even as they touched him they dissipated, and the stars came back into focus.

"Leo. You okay, bro?" said Mikey, at the same time as Raphael said "What's wrong? Leo?"

Leo closed his eyes. He heard the echo of his breath in the helmet, realised he was gasping for air. _Calm, calm_. His hands were shaking. _Don't throw up. _He'd thrown up in his suit before and it was awful. He needed to tell his brothers that he was okay, but his throat wouldn't unclench.

Mikey spoke over comms. "Hang in there. I'm hauling you in."

He felt the tug on his belt, but no other indication that he was moving. He kept his eyes closed, focussed on his breathing, until he felt a hand grip his sleeve.

He opened his eyes. He was back on the hull.

"You with me?"

"Yeah. Thanks Mikey." Relief made his fingers tremble, and his voice shaky.

Mikey gave him a thumbs up. He pushed away, back toward the opening of the exhaust, and stuck his head over the edge. Leo's stomach jerked in reflex.

"It's done," Mikey's voice came over the headset. They would all hear that. "Big worm head be gone."

Leo waited for confirmation from Donnie, but there was no reply. "Let's get back inside."

Leo paused at the apex of the ship to look out at the stars. There was no trace of the space beast.


	5. Chapter 5

To Leonardo's relief, the warning klaxon fell silent halfway through the airlock cycle. Fifty percent gravity flashed up on the screen. By the time the airlock had cycled through, their headsets announced full gravity in one minute.

It was a relief to walk across the hangar to the suit cupboard, a relief to shrug off the sweaty coveralls and hang them up in the cleaner.

"Man, I need a shower," said Mikey, holding his arms away from his body.

He wasn't the only one, thought Leo, catching the sour smell coming off his body, a combination of sweat and fear and the suit's disinfectants. "You first. I want to get a status report from Donnie."

Mikey held up his hands as if warding off trouble. "Ooh, you need backup, bro?"

"I'm good." Leo forced himself to smile, wishing Mikey hadn't said that. He knew why he had; humour was Mikey's way of defusing tension, his defense against this whole drama, but Donnie was on comms like the rest of them, and Leo didn't think Donnie would find it funny. Once it would have been funny. Not so much, these days. "Raph, are you okay?"

"Yeah. Mikey can take over when he gets out of the shower."

The lights came on as Leo made his way to the engine room. The little light pets still pulsed in clusters on the hull. He passed through the door to the engine room. Donnie sat on the floor, surrounded by wires, reading something off a handpad.

"We up and running again?"

Donnie didn't glance up. "Yeah. Reactor's stable. We've got power."

"Life support?" He could hear the ventilators working, but wanted to confirm.

"You know there's a screen behind you. You can look all this up."

Leo bit back an angry retort. "I wanted to check in with you and make sure there weren't any issues."

Donnie shuffled his shoulders, an irritable gesture that meant _go away, Leo_.

Normally he would. But today, today something had broken. Today he wanted to push. Maybe it was the residual adrenaline, maybe he was just fucking tired. "So? Any issues?"

Donnie slammed down the pliers he was holding. "Well the engine is now dead, and I don't know why. And we're lost. How are you going with that, anyway?"

"I left the nav comp running a search-"

"Well maybe you should go check on that." Donnie turned his back and picked up the pliers again in a tacit dismissal.

Leo left, swallowing bitter resentment. It's not easy for me, either, he wanted to say. But they'd gone past fighting. He'd tried to explain his reasons, tried to make Donnie understand. But Donnie, who was normally so logical, was blind to every argument except the one that mattered to him. Twelve hundred dead civilians.

Leo stopped and leaned on the wall of the cargo bay, the weight of twelve hundred lives crushing the breath from him. He squeezed his eyes shut. He was imagining the screams. The faces. That hadn't really happened. Nothing had come over comms when the torpedo swarm had destroyed the _Featherlight. _It was only after, in the dark, that he imagined their deaths.

Leo waited until he could breathe again and pushed off the wall. In the tiny shower he used his full day's water quota, scrubbing his skin clean and then standing under the hot water, just letting it fall, watching it swirl down the drain, trying not to think. Find out where they were. Get the engine running. Go home. He repeated the three phrases over and over in his head, like a mantra, using them to focus his mind away from regrets and unforgiving brothers.

Out in the tiny room that served as kitchen, dining room and living area for the four of them, Raphael worked up a sweat with a set of hand weights, paranoid about losing muscle and bone mass in the ship's low gravity environment.

Leo reached into their store and pulled out an energy drink with shaking hands. He hated the fake taste, but he needed sugar badly.

Raphael leaned his elbow on his thigh, bending forward to get full extension on his bicep curls. "Rough walk?"

"Yeah." Leo dropped into a seat, tired in shell and bone.

Grunt. "Thought that thing was going to attack." Grunt. "Glad it didn't."

"Me, too." Leo's fingers trembled. He squeezed them into a fist to mask the shaking. "Did the nav comp find out where we are?"

"Not yet." Raphael paused mid-curl, his voice pitched low. "Do you want me to talk to Donnie?"

"No." Raphael charging into their conflict, verbal guns cocked and ready to fire, was the last thing he wanted. "No, it's my fault, I'll deal with it." What would it take? How much more could the bonds of brotherhood stretch before they broke completely?

Raphael shifted the weight to his other hand. "Jacquie from the _Salvation_ came to see me before we left the base. Said she'd heard a rumour that Donnie was looking for a new ship."

Leo's heart sank. "What did you say?"

"I told her Donnie wasn't going anywhere."

Leo drained the last of the energy drink and shoved the empty container in the trash. "Maybe he is looking for a new ship."

"He can't leave."

"I can't stop him."

"You fucking have to stop him." Raphael dug into his curls. "He's our brother, he's not fucking leaving."

An sharp cry came over comms. Leo and Raph leaped to their feet. "Mikey?" Leo asked.

"Wasn't me!"

"Donnie," said Raph. He took off, Leo at his heels.

"We've got a problem!" Donnie's voice through the speakers was hoarse and gasping. "Look out! Watch-"

"Donnie?"

Silence.


	6. Chapter 6

The steel floor rang beneath his feet. He couldn't go fast enough. He burst through the bay door. Donnie lay on the floor at the other end of the bay, one hand pressed against the side of his face. Injured? By what? Explosion?

Leonardo covered the distance in seconds. He fell to his knees beside Donnie and hauled him into a sitting position. "What happened?"

"Watch out!" Donnie pointed up.

A dark shadow shivered across the ceiling, sending the little light pets fleeing in a bright mass. Swift as night the shadow flowed over one of the little light beings. It condensed into a dark mass. The light being winked out.

Leo dragged Donnie to his feet. "I think we should retreat."

Donnie didn't argue for once. The two of them hauled him out of the cargo bay between them. Raphael pulled the hatch closed behind him. Leo wondered if that would actually contain it.

They half-carried Donnie through the hanger and into the living area. The skin on Donnie's arm had split and blood oozed down onto Leo's hand. Donnie's left hand was still pressed across his face. In the living area they eased him down on a bench. Leo grabbed for the infirmary kit.

"What happened?" said Mikey over comms.

"Donnie's injured," said Raph.

"And our space worm is in the ship," said Leo.

"Whoa, seriously?"

"Yes. Now let me deal with Donnie."

Raph had pulled Donnie's hand away. The flesh across his cheek was pale and hard, with white patches.

"What happened to your face, Donnie?" said Raph. "What's that white stuff?"

"Frozen air."

Leo, who had been about to wipe the stuff off, pulled out the burn gauze instead and tore into the packets. "What happened?"

"I heard noises in the engine. Thought something must have blown so went over to check."

Leo lay the gauze against Donnie's cheek, the healing balm oozing against the burned skin. Donnie closed his eyes, drawing in a sharp breath. Raphael worked at his arm, lying gauze along the split skin. It looked like Donnie must have thrown up his arm to protect his face. It had clearly taken the worst of it. Second degree burns at least.

Leo left the gauze to do its work and scrabbled through the kit for a restorative. The combination of sedatives, electrolytes and antibiotics would help. He popped the seal and handed it to Donnie.

Donnie swallowed and continued. "It came out of the intake valve. Froze it and it shattered. I got a faceful of frozen atmosphere."

That explained the burns. Leo pulled off the now-dry gauze, wincing as Donnie hissed in pain, and applied a fresh layer.

"It burst out of the pipe. I got out of its way. I don't think it actually noticed me. Just took off after my pets. I guess it must feed on them."

"But hang on. That thing was massive. The head took up the entire exhaust vent. How could it fit into the engine?"

Donnie's eyes were closed, his face tense with pain. "Gravity. Even our light gravity would be enough for it to be able to condense its mass."

"But most of its body floated off into space. How is it still alive?"

Donnie shrugged. "Maybe the head was the only living bit anyway." Donnie's words were slurring, and he blinked slowly. The sedatives were kicking in.

Leo was relieved but also annoyed. He needed Donnie coherent right now. No time to go softly. "How do we get rid of it, Donnie?"

Donnie sank back against the wall. "I don't know."

"Think. I know you have some ideas in there."

Donnie shrugged, and winced at the incautious movement. "It's a deep space being. We have nothing that will kill it that won't kill us." A satisfied expression crossed his face. "Sorry Leo, can't help you kill anyone today."

He heard Raph's sharp intake of breath. Leo's patience snapped. He put his hand around the back of Donnie's neck and yanked him forward. Donnie jerked in pain. Leo pushed his guilt down. "Listen to me. That thing is in the ship. We're stuck out here. We have a leak, and we're going to run out of air. Do you want to die? Is that it? Because we will, if we can't get rid of that thing. And if you won't help us, we're all going to die. And fuck you, Donnie, I'm not willing to give up on my brothers like that."

Donnie's gaze flicked away, but there was something there, something in the brown depths. "I have an engine to fix," he muttered.

"No point fixing the engine if we are dead. And how are you going to get down there, anyway? It's in the cargo hold. How do we kill it?"

Donnie closed his eyes. "I don't know."

"Come on, Donnie." Leo wanted nothing more than to take the pain off Donnie's face, to let him sink into sedated oblivion. But they needed him. Leo needed him. The words were on the tip of his tongue. But he'd said them before, and endured a snarling attack in return. He swallowed, searching for the right words. "We need to pull together, but we can't do that if you question every order. For the sake of your brothers Donnie, please, work with me."

Donnie looked away. After a moment he nodded. Leo wasn't sure if it was the sedatives, or if he really had accepted Leonardo's request. Either way, he was going to try.

"Yeah!" said Mikey over comms. "Good news! We are no longer lost." The screen in the corner flashed up with the image of a star field, this time with landmarks and distance.

Leo's flash of relief faded a little as he followed the lines. The nav comp had found them, but there were four long jumps between where they were and home. How long, and would their oxygen last? "So that's, what, three days?"

"Three days, 18 hours," said Mikey.

"Okay, and we have 76% oxygen, so-"

"The scrubbers are back online, so we have a refresh rate of 2%." Donnie scrubbed at his face, wincing has his fingers caught on the gauze. "Three days, 12 hours before the level gets too low to maintain consciousness."

Leo tried to meed Donnie's eyes. ""We can do the last jump suited. We just need to kill the space worm."

"Yeah, you know, the easy part." Donnie's gaze turned inward, whether from pain, sedatives or a desire to avoid interacting with Leo.

"Okay, the last attempt didn't work well."

"It didn't work at all," Donnie murmured, eyes narrowing as he gazed at something in his head.

"I will think of something", Leo said through gritted teeth. But he didn't think Donnie had heard him.


	7. Chapter 7

Leo waited outside the door to the cargo bay, the heavy laser saw a weight on his shoulders. Raphael's bulk occupied the space to his left, and by turning his head, he could see Donnie leaning on the wall behind them.

Leo's argument that Donnie was in no shape for combat, that he should be at the helm while Mikey gave them backup, had been futile. Donnie had retorted that he was doped up to the gills and the last thing they needed was for him to pass out in the cockpit at a critical point. Leo responded that passing out at a critical point here wouldn't be much better. Donnie pointed out that he would be just as useless passed out in the infirmary bed than in the cockpit, and at least down here he could observe the space worm and find out more about it, unless Leonardo had taken to studying scientific method instead of war manuals when Donnie wasn't looking.

The fragile truce had threatened to snap, so Leo had given in when he really shouldn't. Leo played the argument over in his head, as he had done countless times before, trying to work out where he had gone wrong, where he could do better next time. As if it was a battle he had lost. That thought gave him a funny feeling, so he pushed it away. He and Donnie weren't enemies.

Not yet.

He turned to Raph. "All right. The plan is, we go in, corner it and see if we can take it out with the laser saws."

"It won't be as easy as last time," said Donnie. "It's denser now, it will take time for the lasers to penetrate. Assuming they can."

"Assuming?" said Raph.

"Yeah."

"Ready?" said Leo.

"Always," said Raph.

They eased through the door into the cargo bay, bare feet silent on the metal floors. The light pets clustered on the ceiling, pulsing and dim, a bright white spot high above that cast sharp, dark shadows below.

"What's wrong with them?" Leo whispered to Donnie.

"I don't know. Maybe they're trying to hide. I don't know how much they comprehend, but I'm sure they've noticed there's a predator out there." Donnie pulled the door closed behind him, but didn't latch it.

"You're supposed to be on the other side, remember?" said Leo.

Donnie shrugged, not meeting Leo's gaze. "I changed my mind."

_Fuck it, Donnie. Can you just for once trust my orders and do what you are told?_ The words hovered between them, unsaid, but now was not the time to argue. He shifted his grip on the laser saw and nodded to Raph.

"You take right," said Raph.

"Starboard," said Donnie absently.

"Whatever, Don." Raph moved cautiously down his side.

Leo fired up his saw and walked down the other side, checking every crevice for a dark shape. The dim light from the laser saw made the shadows waver and dance, making it doubly difficult to tell if each dark patch was a lurking interstellar worm, or just a shadow.

He came around a cluster of crates at the same time as Raph. They exchanged a glance, then looked at the short, open distance between them and the open hatch to the engine room. He nodded to Raph and they advanced together.

"Maybe it's moved back into the pipes," said Raph as they approached the hatch.

"Could be. It's probably after the leaking neutrinos," said Donnie in a thoughtful voice.

Leo whirled. Donnie was right behind them. "Damn it, Donnie. You're supposed to be-"

"Look out!" said Donnie. Leo swung back. On the ceiling the light pets streamed in a mass away from the engine room. The shadow flowed out of the hatch and up the wall. They backed away. It flowed across the ceiling above them.

"Is it…bigger?" said Raph.

"Yeah. I think it's been feeding," said Donnie.

"Well, time to take it down." Raph charged across the bay after it. It was following one of the light pets as they fled down the wall. The light pet shot past Raph and he raised his saw. "Have some lasers, wormy!"

Leo held his breath, torn between despair at Raph's gung-ho attitude, and delight at his warrior brother's fearlessness. The space worm flashed past Raph, ignoring him completely.

"What the? Hey!" Raph whirled. Leo charged over to intercept it.

The space worm slid down the wall and shot across the floor. It caught up to the light pet and spread out, flowing over the little being. The light winked out without a sound.

"The hell," said Raph.

"Maybe it doesn't recognise you. Squishy carbon-based lifeforms might not be something it has encountered before," said Donnie.

"Squishy what?" said Raph.

"Nevermind! Take it out!" said Leo, raising his saw.

Raphael caught up to it first and brought the laser saw down on. The space worm convulsed and curled into a ball, leaving a little dying flicker of light on the floor.

"We can hurt it!" said Raphael, raising the saw to strike.

The space worm moved impossibly fast, spreading out into a thin sheet, flowing up and over Raphael. Raphael writhed under the black sheet. Leo could see his eyes, wide with horror. The saw dropped from his hand.

"Raph!" Leo cried. He bolted forward, Donnie right behind him. Alarms went off all over the ship. "Radiation levels warning," said the computer impassively.

Donnie gasped. "Of course!" He disappeared from Leo's side.

"Donnie! Wait!" Leo brought his saw down on a part of the being. It released Raphael, who lay on the floor, gasping, and turned to Leo. Leo backed away, then turned and ran, hoping it would follow him away from Raph. Something caught him, burning cold around his ankle and he fell. He kicked out at it, but it was like fighting rubber. He swung the saw down, dimly aware of the very real danger of slicing off his own leg. But the space worm must have learned, because it retreated as the laser saw came near.

There was a hiss and the thing jerked away, retreating behind the cargo boxes. Leo threw a hand over his mouth as he was bathed in greyish powder. Donnie, holding an extinguisher, forced the thing back with the spray. He painted the beast with the grey powder. It shrank, and disappeared between some boxes.

Leo pushed himself and up and staggered over to Raph, who lay on his side, retching and gasping. Leo hauled him to his feet. "Come on, bro. We need to get out of here." Raphael took a step, staggering like he was drunk. Leo shifted under his brother and half carried him out of the bay. "Donnie!"

"Coming!" Donnie turned and hobbled after them. Leo leaned Raph against the wall and leaped to pull the door closed, latching it firmly.

Raphael slid to the floor. Donnie knelt beside him. The burns on Donnie's arms were oozing fluid. Raphael's skin had a grey cast.

Two brothers down. Could this get any worse?He swallowed his guilt. "What's wrong with him, Donnie?"

Donnie examined Raph with quick, sure movements. "I think he's got radiation poisoning. He needs treatment fast."

They half-carried Raph up to the living area. Donnie scuffled through their supplies and pulled out a bottle of dark liquid. "Let's hope the dose wasn't too high," he said. He popped the cap. Raphael had stopped retching but lay on the bench with his eyes closed, clutching his stomach.

"What happens if it was too high?"

Donnie ignored the question. "Sit him up. Raph, you need to drink this."

Raphael took the bottle from Donnie with hands that shook. He sipped and gagged. "What is this?"

"Iodine. It will absorb any residual radiation in your system and reduce cellular damage."

"It tastes like shit." He held the bottle out to Donnie, but Donnie pushed it back.

"Drink all of it."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Suck it up, bro. It's that or..."

"Or what?" said Leo.

"You don't want to know."

Donnie was right. Leo didn't want to know. He had officially reached the limit of things he could deal with right now. Post-fight adrenaline ran down his back in waves. His vision narrowed. Everything greyed out except his two injured brothers.

He'd been here before, in this focused space, this place where nothing mattered except the fight. It was a relief. To let go of everything except the immediate danger. He breathed out, a hiss between his teeth. Both of them looked up at him.

"What happened, Donnie?" Was that his voice? So cool so devoid of emotion?

Donnie glanced away from him and sat down next to Raph, cradling his arm. "Our space worm appears to have a defense mechanism, where it releases dangerous amounts of radiation. That's what set off the radiation warning system." He pointed to the extinguisher, and now Leo noticed the _Radiation Spill Control_ label. "Graphene oxide powder would have sucked up most of the radiation it was emitting."

"Can we kill it with that?"

"No. It's only going to absorb the radiation. It won't damage the worm."

"And the saw did nothing."

"The thing's too dense in a gravity environment. The saw would eventually cut through it, but I don't think it's going to stay still that long."

"Can we turn off the gravity?" He thought about trying to battle the space worm in zero G with laser saws. "Scratch that. And it's not going to care if we vent the ship, is it?"

"Nope," said Donnie.

"Fuck this," said Raph wearily.

"You shut up and drink," said Donnie.

Raphael took another swig, grimacing.

"Whoa, guys! We have a problem!" yelled Mikey over comms. The ship shuddered. Klaxons blared as red light filled the room.

"Mikey! What's going on?" snapped Leo.

"Kraang ships!" he yelled.

_You've got to be kidding me_. He waited for the panic to roll over him, but his calm remained. "Stay here," he said. He ran up to the cockpit. They were dead in the water here, with no engine. No maneuverability. Another blow rocked the ship, slamming him against the wall.

When he dived through the hatch, Mikey turned to him, wide-eyed. "They're calling for our surrender." The question was unspoken, but hung in the air between them. _What the hell do I do, Leo?_

They couldn't give themselves over to the Kraang. That would be a death sentence, a slow, painful one. But not surrendering at this point would just mean a barrage of fire until the _Honour's Blade_ disintegrated, dooming them all to a cold, airless grave. Another shot rocked the ship.

Leo put his hand on Mikey's shoulder. His voice was gravel when he spoke. "Tell them we surrender."

Mikey gulped and opened the comm. Leo listened to Mikey advise the Kraang of their surrender, listened to the demands that came back from the Kraang commander. Any power readings that indicated weapons fire would result in immediate destruction. Failure to allow boarding would result in immediate destruction.

Leo kept his hand on Mikey's shoulder to anchor himself. His mind had blanked out. _Don't give up. Don't give up._ There must be something they could do. But there were enemies outside, and enemies inside, and enemies within themselves. His vision narrowed again, until his whole universe was Mikey's broad shell, his hand on his brother's shoulder. _I can't fight them all._ _Think._

He had battled multiple enemies before. Master Splinter's training came back to him. _Don't try and fight them all at once. Knock them out, one at a time. Get distance. Use your environment. _

His comm set crackled. "Leo."

"Yes, Donatello?" Was that his voice? It sounded like it came from far away.

"The space worm is attracted to neutrinos. I think I can extract enough from the reactor to make a canister that we might use to lure it away from the engine room."

The world rushed back in, all colour and light. A plan unfolded in his mind like a flower, each petal perfectly proportioned, and his heartbeat kicked up a notch. "Thanks, Don. Get up here, both of you. I have a plan."


	8. Chapter 8

"This is insane," said Raphael.

"Drink your iodine and shut up," said Donnie.

They were all in the cockpit, crowded around Raph's console. On screen, the Kraang boarding shuttles advanced on them in a slow, inexorable circle of death.

"Are we going to make it?" said Mikey.

"It'll be close." Donnie's fingers moved lightning fast over the screens. "But the jump is set." He looked up and met Leo's gaze. Leo waited for a sarcastic remark about doing it _right_, but Donnie just said, "Raph can set it off."

"Run this crazy shit plan of yours past me one more time?" said Raph.

Leo breathed out through his nose, trying to stay calm in the searchlight brightness of three distinct gazes; blue, green, brown. "Donnie will go down to the engine room and make a neutrino package while Mikey and I distract the space worm. Mikey will run the canister down to the torpedo tubes and lure the worm into a tube while Donnie brings the engine back on line. I will fire the torpedo at the Kraang ship. Raph, as soon as the torpedo leaves, you jump us to the next star. Simple."

"Yeah, simple." Raph snorted. "And if something goes wrong?"

"If something goes wrong, you will fire on the Kraang ships," said Leo. He forced his gaze to meet each of his brothers in turn. "Better to die under fire than under Kraang torture."

Raph met his gaze and nodded, his expression fierce. Mikey swallowed and nodded, his eyes bright. Donnie wouldn't look at him.

"Donnie."

Donnie kept his gaze on the screens, clearly struggling with his thoughts. After a moment he stood, and faced Leo. "Let's do this."


	9. Chapter 9

Leo opened the door to the cargo bay once more, but this time it was Mikey on his left, Donnie behind him.

"Do you think it will attack?" said Mikey. Even with his voice lowered, the noise echoed in the large space.

"It might," said Donnie, quieter. "It knows we're enemies now."

That thought hovered over them as they slipped through the door, huddled together so they could watch all directions. An ache gripped Leo; memory and nostalgia for the times on Earth when they had gone hunting like this, creeping along darkened alleyways, stealthy, aware, watching each other's backs. It was so familiar and comforting that Leo wanted to stop and savour it for a moment, pretend that they were as they had been, pretend that all the bitterness and conflict was yet to come.

But instead of a sword, Leo carried a laser saw; Mikey had the graphene extinguisher, and Donnie held the canister for the neutrinos. There was no going back. If they were going to survive, they had to get through this.

On the other side, there would be time for more. Leo made a silent promise to himself. To his brothers.

They came out from between the stacked cargo and paused. Donnie stepped into engine room, then backed out hastily. "Okay, we have a problem. It's on the reactor."

"What's going on?" said Raph over comms.

Leo didn't waste breath replying. He slipped up beside him and peered through the hatch. The space worm was a black, pulsing mass on the reactor. "Is it feeding?" He couldn't imagine what would happen if it got bigger, stronger.

"No. The reactor has shielding. I guess it knows that's where the food is, but can't get to it."

Well that was a small relief. "How do we get it off there?"

"Extinguisher," said Donnie.

Leo nodded and motioned Mikey forward. Don pressed against the wall near the hatch, ready to leap through. Mikey crouched on the other side. Leo stood in the opening and turned on his saw. A big, shiny target.

"Now," he said to Mikey.

The extinguisher went off with a roar, shooting a cloud of graphene at the space worm. It flashed away from the reactor and rushed toward the hatch. Leo ran, dodging to the side, remembering how fast it was. He bolted between the stacks, waiting for the chill grip, shoulders hunched in anticipation of a cold grip. But nothing came at him. He glanced behind him, but couldn't see a shadow. He slowed, swung around, saw up. Nothing.

"Where is it?" said Raph's voice through the speakers, at the same time as Mikey yelled "Where did it go?", his voice bouncing off the metal walls. He was somewhere to the left of Leo, in another alleyway between the stacks, he guessed. "Raph, can you see it on any of the cameras?"

"No." The cameras were trained on the cargo bay doors, there to track coming and going. Not to record inert cargo. Leo jerked the saw up at a sound above him, only to see Mikey's face appear over the edge of the stacked cargo.

"Mikey." He couldn't keep the relief out of his voice. "Where's Donnie?"

"In the engine room."

"We'd better circle back in case it traps him in there. Stay close to me." Leo hurried down the corridor, sweeping the walls, the shadows, looking for darkness that moved. They positioned themselves in the doorway to the engine room. Leo glanced behind him. Donnie was bent over the reactor connection to the engine, working at the valve. The radiation alarm went off.

"Donnie—"

"Ignore it," he snapped.

Leo grimaced. The alarms weren't meant to be ignored. They screamed at him _something is wrong_ and he silently agreed with them.

"Radiation warning," said Raph over comms, as if they couldn't hear it. "What's happening?"

Leo bit back his desire to silence Raph. It wasn't his fault. He never did handle incapacity well. "Donnie's filling the canister. Nearly there. How are the Kraang?"

"Closing in."

Now he wished he hadn't asked. He tried to put the Kraang out of his mind. Nothing he could do about them.

"Here it comes!" yelled Mikey.

A shadow swept across the ceiling, lightning fast. He and Mikey locked shoulders, standing between the worm and Donnie, working frantically in the engine room. It flowed across the ceiling above them. Mikey gave it a blast of powder. It jerked back, but didn't retreat.

"How much brain do you think it has?" said Mikey.

"Not much, I hope," he said, as the shadow slid from one side to the other, clearly indecisive. _Yes, look, we're scary, you don't want to take us on._

"Got it!" shouted Donnie from behind them. Leo heard the clang as Mikey dropped the extinguisher, the slap of the canister on Mikey's hands, and then Mikey was off across the cargo bay, waving the canister above his head. "Come on, wormy! Din-dins!"

The space worm surged across the ceiling and dropped down in front of Mikey, who yelped and changed direction.

_He's not fast enough_, thought Leo, dashing across the bay. "Mikey! To me!"

"What's happening?" said Raph.

Mikey tossed the canister and Leo caught it. He turned and ran down the long corridor between the stacks, feet ringing on the metal floor. There was the door, getting closer, but there was the shadow above him.

"Up and over, Dude! Go long!"

"_What's happening?"_ Raph shouted.

Leo sent the cannister up in an arc over the cargo. The worm raced after it. Leo climbed the cargo stacks and ran along the top. The worm out of sight. Leo leaped the gap and looked down.

Mikey was cornered. Leo was closest to the hatch. Time for a change of plans. "Mikey! Here!"

Mikey tossed him the canister. He bolted for the end of the stack and jumped. The impact shot up through his knees. He staggered and dived through the hatch. Adrenaline sluiced through his system. How close was it? Could he make it? His feet pounded on the decking plates. Keep moving. Keep moving. The narrow corridor closed in around him. He couldn't stop to look behind him. Every moment he anticipated the cold touch. Through another hatch, and then he was in their tiny armament bay. The torpedo tube was open and waiting. He turned.

The space worm was right behind him. He froze in terror as the blackness spread over him. He shoved the canister in the tube. _Go after it, go after it!_

The worm flowed off him and he fell, but it wasn't crawling into the tube. It had extruded part of itself into the narrow space after the canister. Leo kicked it, but it was like kicking rubber, and had as much effect. His mouth was dry, and his stomach roiled. _Too much radiation_, he thought distantly.

"Duck, bro!"

Leo rolled away. Mikey sprayed the worm with the extinguisher. It flowed into the tube and Mikey slammed the door.

Leo hit the button which would pressurise the tube and send the contents shooting out into space. "Go, Raph! Jump!"

"I can't! Engine's still offline!"

The ship rocked, throwing them against the wall.

"And the Kraang are pissed!" he said.

It was over. Leo met Mikey's gaze, blue and solemn. "Fire all torpedoes," he said, his voice gravel and glass. Might as well go out in a blaze of glory.

The ship rocked again. The lights went off, then flickered on again. A long low siren wailed, drowning out anything they might want to say. Hull breach. The shields must be down. Not long now. Mikey's hand fumbled for his. He gripped it.

A cool detachment washed over him. This was the end. In the fog of acceptance, a sting of regret. There was still something he needed to say, to Donnie, before he died. He opened his mouth. "Donatello, I-" It was no good. There was too much noise. He swallowed bitter regret. He didn't want to die with this thing unsaid between them.

The deck vibrated beneath his feet as the engine rumbled to life. Too late, he thought, as the world dissolved around them.

He came back to himself, lying on the floor with Mikey draped over him, the taste of ash in his mouth, deafened by the warning klaxons.

"Holy shit," said Mikey, raising his head. "Did we make it?"

Raph's voice came over comms. "We're down to 2% oxygen."

Leo stared at Mikey, his brain not ready to accept that they had made it. Mikey, always the first to bounce back from a crisis, yelled and thumped him on the shoulder. "We made it! Woohoo! We rock!"

Leo grinned at him, though he hoped it didn't look as sick as he felt. "Suit up and head for the cockpit, guys. Raph, I'll bring your suit up. And save me some iodine."

"Oh, no problem. I've got plenty. You'll love it."

In the hanger, he was halfway into his suit when Donnie limped in. Mikey slipped away discreetly with Raph's suit. Donnie hesitated near the suit cupboard.

Leo stepped aside so he could get to his suit. He thought of all the things he'd wanted to say when the Kraang torpedoes had been pounding them. The words seemed harder to say now. He opened his mouth, closed it again. "Great timing," he said finally.

Donnie's mouth twisted in a wry smile. "Thanks." He paused, his eyes shifting away from Leo's face, then back. "Good plan."

Leo heard the unsaid _this time_. "Thank you." There was fluid oozing through the gauze on Donnie's arm. That was going to be murder in a suit. "Let me give you a hand." He stepped forward.

Donnie's face closed over. "I'm good, thanks." He turned his back on Leo.

Leo stood frozen for a long moment as Donnie pulled out his suit. _I should help him anyway. That's what he wants._ But his judgment on what Donnie wanted was no longer reliable. Would it fix things, if he just helped anyway, or would it make things worse? Would it open up the festering wound between them and break them apart once and for all?

He didn't have the courage to find out. He zipped up his suit and headed for the cockpit.


	10. Chapter 10

The long corridors of the hospital at Pascula Base always smelled of disinfectant and plastic, and reminded Leo of the smell inside his spacesuit, an unpleasant association. He exchanged nods with a couple of familiar faces. Here, in this mix of alien cultures, they didn't stand out at all. It was strange how far from home they'd had to go to finally feel like they belonged.

He pushed through some swing doors, following the directions he'd been given. The hospital was massive but still a makeshift affair, bolted together from foundation plates and scavenged habitations and anything else that would form walls and floor and ceiling.

He realised with a start that he was happy. Not jubilant, but more positive than he'd felt in months, despite the smell and the lingering effects of the radiation. They were out of danger, they'd survived, and they were still together.

And more than that, he felt that he'd made progress with Donnie. Not amazing progress, and there was still so much residual tension there, but he felt that maybe, if he could sit him down and just hash it out, they might move forward. And Donnie was stuck in bed. What better place to sit down and just _talk_?

But when he finally found their room, only Raph was there, sitting up at least, but still looking grey. He was hooked up to an IV and didn't look happy about it.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine. Ready to go. Tell them to unhook me from this damn thing." Leo knew him too well, knew that the grumbling was just Raph's way of dealing with anything medical. Leo sat on the bed next to him and patted his arm, knowing it would enrage him and take his focus off the hospital for a while. Raph snarled and thumped him, but it was a pathetic attempt compared to his usual strikes. He seemed to realise it, sinking back onto the pillows, his face paler than normal.

How was it that his knowledge of one brother was so complete, but his knowledge of another so patchy? He thought he knew Donatello. But Donnie was no longer the brother Leo thought he knew. "Where's Donnie?" Leo asked, expecting him to be nearby, getting his burns treated.

"Checked himself out."

"I thought they said a week at least."

"You know Don. Knows better than anyone else."

Leo couldn't tell at this point if Raph's remarks were because he was mad at Donnie, or just mad in general. "Do you know where he-"

Someone knocked, and Leo stood. Jacquie from the _Salvation_ stuck her head around the door. "Hey guys. I was looking for Donnie."

"He's not here," snapped Raph.

Leo put a placating hand on Raph's arm. Jacquie was a friend. "He checked out."

"He did? I thought he was in for a while. Bought him his sign-up papers." She held out a thick envelope.

Leo stared at it. He knew intellectually what it was, but his heart wouldn't accept that it existed, that the envelope contained papers that would help Donnie to walk away from them. That he had already arranged to walk away.

How long? How long had he been planning to leave them?

"Uh, I can give them to him myself, I guess," said Jacquie, withdrawing the envelope.

"No, sorry, it's fine, I can pass them on." Leo took the envelope with fingers that shook. "Sorry, still a bit dopey." It was so weighty in his hand.

"Thanks Leo. Really thanks. I can't tell you how much this means to us. We need a medical technician badly. Half of my arsenal is in for repair, and if we can do repairs out on the line, it will make things so much easier. We never thought Donnie would leave you guys. I'm just- We're so excited to have him. Thanks so much."

Leo managed to stammer something, but his head was buzzing. Raph on the bed glowered like an enraged hornet.

Jacquie looked from one to the other of them, as if suddenly realising that her delight wasn't shared. "Well, thanks again," she said, backing away. "I'll see you guys around."

When she was gone, Leo stared at the envelope, the white paper, the mark of the _Salvation_ in the corner.

"Drop it in the trash. Pretend you never got it," said Raph savagely. He reached for it.

"No." Leo pulled it out of his reach, tucked it under his arm. "We can't do that."

"Yes we can."

But he couldn't. He couldn't lie outright to Donnie about this. No matter how much it hurt.

"_Leo_. You can't let him _go._"

Leo shook his head and turned to the door. "I'll fix it," he said over his shoulder. "I'll-" But he didn't know if he could. He didn't have a plan.

During the long walk down to the hanger where the _Honour's Blade_ was docked, he wondered if he _should _try to stop Donnie leaving. Maybe if Donnie had some space, maybe if they weren't snapping at each other every five minutes, things would settle down. Donnie might listen to him, if they escaped the cycle of attack and defend that had been their lives for months now.

But the thought of Donnie on another ship, away from them, out of reach of their help, should he need it, made Leo sick. And Raph wouldn't take it. Raph would blame him for letting Donnie go. He would replace one angry brother for another.

When he stepped into the hangar bay, flashes of light on the walls told him where Donnie was and what he was doing; repairing the hull. Leo took a deep breath, swallowed his fear and climbed the ladder up the side of the hull.

Donnie was at the top, face behind a face shield and Leo looked away as the welder flashed again. When the light died down he crossed the hull to Donnie, making no attempt to be quiet. Up close, Donnie was a mess. Hard black blisters covered his arm and the side of his face. Some of the ones on his arm had burst, and oozed blood and fluid.

"Hey," said Donnie, from behind his face shield.

"Shouldn't you be in the infirmary?"

Donnie shrugged, not turning to face Leo. Leo sighed. They were back to this again. Crisis over, the peace treaty had been revoked. Leo held out the envelope.

Donnie switched off the welder and extended his hand for the envelope. He didn't open it, just lay it in his lap.

"Jacquie dropped it off at the hospital." All the way down to the hanger, Leo had been reminding himself to go carefully, to work his way through this calmly, not to accuse Donnie of anything. But he found he was shaking. "How long have you been planning to leave?" The words burst from him, full of pain. His voice was uneven. "When were you going to tell us?"

Donnie flinched, and Leo was glad of it, glad someone else was hurting instead of just him. Then he felt guilty for wanting Donnie to hurt more than he already was.

Donnie didn't say a word, didn't raise his visor. He kept staring at the envelope in his lap.

Leo turned away, suddenly empty. What was the point of trying any more? Donnie had been walking away from them for months. From him. Well now it was Leo's turn.

Every step felt like he was tearing a piece of himself away.

"I don't think this is going to work anymore. Us."

Leo froze as Donnie's words reached him, soft and barely audible. What should he do? Keep walking, or turn back?

Both ways hurt. But habit was strong, so he turned around. Donnie had taken off his faceplate, but he was still staring at the envelope.

Leo gathered the last of his resources. "I don't want to lose you." He swallowed. _But I feel like I already have._ He couldn't say it. He was afraid that if he did, it might turn out to be true.

Donnie turned the envelope over in his hands. "I don't really want to go."

"Then why-" Leo couldn't say the words, so he gestured at the envelope. "Why?"

No answer came. He stood there in silence, looking down at his brother, at the weeping marks on his arm. "Please stay," he said. "Donnie. Please."

Donnie's breath came out in a harsh cry. "I can't. I can't do this anymore. I can't go through this every day."

Leo swallowed against the tight ache in his chest. "I would rather have you here and hating me, than somewhere else."

Donnie's voice was barely audible. "I don't hate you."

"You've been...acting like you do."

Donnie raised a hand to rub his face, winced and dropped it again.

"Donnie, if I could change things, I would. But I had to..I had to make a decision. If we'd let that Kraang scout go to help the _Featherlight_, then even more lives would have been compromised. I told myself we could make it back in time." He swallowed. "I was wrong."

"I know you needed to make that decision." Donnie's voice was sharp with pain. He swallowed visibly. "It's not you. It's not the _Featherlight_. It's us. I don't know what we've become."

Leo blinked, confused. "What do you mean?"

"What are we, Leo? What are we doing?"

"We're fighting the Kraang."

Donnie shuffled his shoulders.

Leo struggled to understand why he was upset. "We're at war, Donnie. We're helping keep people safe."

"Are we? Some days I wonder."

A light went on in Leo's head. "Is that why the _Salvation?_ You wanted to help people?"

Donnie sighed. "Something like that." He looked up at Leo for the first time. "I can't forget, Leo. I can't get them out of my head."

Leo nodded, swallowed, nodded again. "I can't either." Leo forced himself to meet the brown gaze.

Donnie looked away. That was it, then. That was his last volley. He had nothing left. He closed his eyes, exhausted by the effort. It shouldn't be this hard, just to talk to his brother.

Something tore and his eyes flew open. Donnie ripped the envelope in two and stood.

Leo reached out, his vision blurry, and put a hand on Donnie's shoulder.

Donnie reached up and patted his hand. "All right," he said. "Let's...let's try again." He tossed the envelope halves into the trash.

Leo wiped his eyes hastily and followed Donnie down the ladder. It was a start.

Donnie looked up at him, not with a smile, but with an attempt at one. "We'd better rescue Raph before he tears out his IV and runs off."

"Will he be all right in the ship?"

"Yeah. I can manage his meds, and you can manage him." He paused. "That's what you're good at."

"Not always," said Leo.

They walked in silence for a while. "More than you think," said Donnie. He draped a long arm over Leo's shoulders. "Thanks," he said quietly.

It was enough.

* * *

Thank you so much for reading What Lurks in the Dark. I hope you enjoyed it!

If you're looking for more science fiction turtles, you might enjoy my story Turning Point.

Thanks again for reading, and please let me know what you think!


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